2010-05-09

Sibu (P212)contains 54,695 voters, including 2,537 postal voters. The by-election electoral roll is dated 2010 April 10 but not a gazetted copy. Sibu contains many small voting centers with just a single voting stream in each.

The Sibu (P212) parliamentary seat (electoral roll updated to 2010 April 10) is a medium-large seat:

SPR speaks of 45 voting centers. But there are actually only 43 physically separated places for Voting Center (Pusat Mengundi), because two of them are shared by 4 DMs (Table B)

Table A: P212 Sibu By-Election Roll Dated 20100409

Numbers of subdivisions and voters

20100409 data

Number of subdivisions and voters

DUN

DMs

PM

salurans

localities

non-postalvoters

postalvoters

totalvoters

P212/47

Bawang Assan

13

25

41

136

16,116

-

16,116

P212/48

Pelawan

11

11

47

76

25,598

8

25,606

P212/49

Nangka

6

9

22

93

10,444

2,529

12,973

Total

30

45

110

305

52,158

2,537

54,695

Excl postal

incl postal

20080205 GE12

20080205 GE12

51,061

2,618

53,679

Table B: Four DMs sharing two of the Voting Centers

Parl/DUN/DM

Nama DUN

NamaDM

Pusat Mengundi

212/47/11

Bawang Assan

Lower Island

SJK Chung Hua Jalan Lintang

212/47/12

Bawang Assan

Upper Island

SJK Chung Hua Jalan Lintang

212/48/03

Pelawan

Sungai Merah

SMK Tiong Hin Sungai Merah

212/48/06

Pelawan

Disa

SMK Tiong Hin Sungai Merah

Note about DM-Pusat Mengundi - Saluran ratio

SPR is confusing the terminology? A voting center, often using a school, is now called a "Pusat Mengundi" or voting center. But in the past, these used to be called a "Tempat Mengundi" and in its database marked as "TM." (So a Pusat Mengundi should probably be shortened as TM, not PM?)

Some voting center arrangement is very different from the West Malaysian DM and voting center arrangement.

In West Malaysia, one DM is normally associated with 1 or at most 2 voting centers (school, eg), with 1-4 streams/salurans in each voting center.

But in East Malaysia, one DM can be associated with say 6 pusat mengundi, with only 1 saluran in each PM. (212/47/01 Sibu / Bawang Assan / Rassau)

Apparently, East Malaysia's dispersed geography means one DM uses many, separately, small, pusat mengundis (instead of a single school ground like in West Malaysia).

Table G tells us some DMs are really splintered into multiple and small voting centers, even though they look large in Table E:

This table shows every DM, and each of the 110 voting stream for each voting center (pusat mengundi),

For example, even though Rassau looks like a large DM in Table E, with 2,335 voters, the fact is this DM is splintered into 6 physically separated voting centers, each with a single voting stream (saluran).

Similarly, several other NamaDMs are each associated with multiple Pusat Mengundi, each with only 1 voting stream (saluran), such as DM Penasu, Bawang Assan, Kunyit, etc.

(By contrast, in urbanized West Malaysian seats, a DM would normally be accomodated by only a single school as a voting center, not so many).

This means election monitors need to split their teams and increase personnel to monitor these differently-located voting centers, within the same DMs.

Some other DMs in Sibu is each associated with only a single voting center (pusat mengundi) that contains multiple voting streams (saluran). Eg, 212/48/01, or DUN Pelawan, DM Rajang Park, is using only one voting center, ie, Tadika Taman Rajang, with 6 voting streams in this same place. This pattern is similar to West Malaysian, and urban, pattern.